Dabbles with Drabbles
by Kitsa
Summary: A collection of drabbles around the 9th doctor. I am mostly experiementing to see if I can write him before I start the big story. Read and review, also suggestions for new Drabbles greatly appreciated.
1. Loss

A/N My first attempt at writing 9, be gentle with me. Read and review.

He watched them all the time, his human companions: Rose making tea in the kitchen, Jack halfway under the console, legs sticking out with a smear of lubricant across his white shirt. They didn't know, of course.

Well, that was half right. Rose didn't know and Jack, well he thought it was only Rose he watched. He didn't want them to know. They didn't need to know that he was recording it all, every move, touch or silly joke, Jack's flirting and Rose's gentle smile. In time it would be all he had.

The Doctor knew a lot about loss.


	2. FicletInsecurity

A/N Ok, this time I am trying a ficlet because the drabble was just too short. The Prompt was from Roadrunner, and thanks always to my beta Orion Lyonesse. Please read and review.

It struck at odd moments, the fear that this was the one. Sitting in a jail cell on Proxima III, watching Rose dab at Jack's lip with a clean handkerchief from one of his pockets, split fighting against their captors. _Split trying to protect you_, the voice whispered, the one that reminded him that he didn't deserve the loyalty, that he was a coward who lived when everyone died. This was far from the first time.

Sometimes it came to him while tinkering with the TARDIS in the asphalt court in front of the block of council flats where Rose was visiting her mum. Would she come back this time or decide to stay? When would the excitement wear thin? When would her old life drag her back?

The lad was a different matter altogether. Though little had been said so far, he could see a soldier's bearing in the way he carried himself, especially when he thought no one was looking. A soldiers disillusion as well. Jack signed up with a purpose and they had betrayed and broken him, the Doctor didn't need to be psychic to know that. Didn't need it to know that now Jack wanted to believe again, in him and that terrified the time lord. _Don't, lad_, he wanted to tell him, _don't trust me, don't fall like Rose, all I can give is heartbreak. I will betray you. I can't save you, I can't even save myself_. He would learn, he would find some beauty to lose himself in and wander off. Adventure was easy to find, especially for someone like him, but the other, what he really wanted, that wasn't possible, was it? After the jealous way he had reacted to Jack's approach with Rose…He should step back, he knew, encourage them together, but he couldn't. He couldn't step forward and he couldn't back away and leave them be.

He looked over at the two of them, sitting on the cell's one shelf-like bunk. They were both looking at him, smiling. "Hey Doc, you want to come kiss this and make it better?" Jack asked.

"Rose turn you down then?" he shot back but he was smiling. Rose, thus challenged, leaned over and gave Jack a quick peck. It was so sudden that even the ex-time agent looked startled before a big smile spread over his handsome features.

"Your turn, Doctor," she said with a cheeky grin.

"Thought you'd be ready to get out of here first. That is, if you're done being made over?" he said, ignoring both the suggestion and the look of expectant pleasure on the lad's face. Jack stood immediately.

"Sure. Maybe I can get some more of that when we're some place comfortable, say, home?"

_Home_, the lad had said, the word going through him like a lightning strike. The Doctor felt the warmth push at the cold left from his earlier thoughts. Did they both really think of the TARDIS as home? Almost as if she was reading his thoughts, Rose stood and took his hand. "I vote home as well," she said.

"Fantastic," he said, gathering Jack close to him as well, in case they were on surveillance. Before he began though, he leaned over and gave Jack a peck, just as Rose had. "Make sure I've got your attention," he said, blue eyes twinkling at the gobsmacked look on the young man's face. "Now, here's what we'll do…"


End file.
